Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/375

 THREE OXFORDSHIRE WRITERS. 2S.3 Mr. Wright doubts his having written the poem, " dr Palpo7ie,'' because he docs not find that Walter Hve<l at li- near Wimborno ; but it is not unHkcly, lor, as WInibornc was in the Diocese of Sarum, lie may have been a chaiilain, or the incumbent there, prior to his becoming a Canon of Sarum. With regard to the origin of Walter Map, I am inclined to believe Map is a Welsh name, and, if so, it is probal)lc that Walter was a Welshman. Hence may have arisen the friendship between this triad of illustrious writers, namely, Walter, Giraldus Cambrensis, and Geffrey of Mon- mouth. Walter Map took the trouble to convert Giraldus's account of Wales into a poem in that doggerel species of Latin verse, peculiar to himself, thereby showing that he felt a strong interest in the history of that country, Walter Map had a nephew^ living between 1183 and Hi) 7, named Philip Map, and the name existed about 200 years since, in the person of Leonard Mapes, whose Will, dated 1620, is in the Prerogative Office, and the name may possibly exist still, under that mode of spelling it. Leland, Bale, and Pits, are said to state that Walter Map was the Archdeacon, who gave the ancient Welsh M8. of the " Historia Britonum" to Geffrey of Monmouth. The statement, however, that he received it from Walter, Arch- deacon of Oxford, (cf Pits, p. 217,) cannot relate to Walter Map, for by the following remarks it w^ill be shown that it was not possible he should have been the donor. Walter Map was made Archdeacon of Oxford in 1196 or 1197. Geffrey says, " While I fell into a train of thought on the History of the King of Britain, (wondering that Gildas and Bcde had said nothing of those kings wOiich inhabited Britain before the birth of Christ, nothing even of Arthur, nor of many others since that time, although their actions are worthy of eternal praise, and were traditionally handed down among the people,) Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, offered me a very old book in the Welsh language, giving the history of Britain from the time of Brutus to the reign of Ca<lwalladcr ap Cadwallon." It would be clear from this, that the book was not translated by Geffrey until after 1197, if, as I said before, this Walter, Archdeacon, should be Walter ]lap. Henry of Huntingdon dedicates his work to Alexandei-, vor,. VIII. <i 'i